It would be difficult for Brian Burke to swagger into town feeling triumphant or with any sense of vindication.

The team he left behind, the Maple Leafs, may be in a nightmarish tailspin, but they’re still better than the team he currently leads as interim general manager, the Calgary Flames.

Well, we think that’s the case.

At the very least, the Leafs will finish this season with a better record. But they’re now likely to miss post-season play, as will the Flames, and you could have a spirited debate — particularly now, with everyone questioning just about everything with the Leafs — which club has a brighter future.

Right now, in fact, you could argue both clubs would be better off losing more games than winning them, thus improving their respective positions for the NHL draft lottery.

How about that, huh? Who would have thought we’d be talking about the Leafs and the draft lottery after they won two of three in California a couple of weeks ago?

Amazing what the worst Leaf losing streak in three decades has done.

Anyways, back to Burke, a man who surely knows the discomfort his former right hand man, Dave Nonis, is feeling today.

“The job there (in Toronto) is the best job if you’re winning, and the worst if you’re losing,” he said.

And oh my goodness, it would surely be ironic if, 15 months after a flu-ridden Burke walked into a meeting with Larry Tanenbaum and Tom Anselmi and was blindsided with the news that he was being fired, his Flames could finish off the reeling Leafs Tuesday night.

“I was gratified to have that opportunity with the Leafs. The whole time there I was treated wonderfully and I’m still treated wonderfully in Toronto. I mean, I’m in Toronto 10 days a month to see my daughters,” he said.

“But I’m a Flame now and we’re coming into that building to get two points.”

Calgary, expected by many to be the NHL’s worst team, has been easily outdone in that regard by their Alberta cousins from Edmonton and the Buffalo Sabres. In fact, the Flames have been a pleasant surprise in the second half of the season, a hardworking and competitive squad that’s 9-7-0 since NHLers returned from Sochi.

“What’s made the difference for us is the impact our coach, Bob Hartley, and our captain, Mark Giordano, have made,” said Burke. “Giordano is lights out as a captain and a leader and Hartley has changed the culture. We tend to outwork the opposition.

“Bob won’t get any coach-of-the-year votes. But he should. Because of our coach and our captain we’ve played better than anyone expected, including me.”

Those comments, of course, will sting more than a few Leaf fans given the mixed feelings (at best) many are feeling towards Toronto head coach Randy Carlyle — blamed for having no system — and team captain Dion Phaneuf, a nightmarish minus-13 in his last 10 games who now carries a seven-year, $49-million contract extension that kicks in next year.

Burke offered no thoughts on the Leafs — himself a veteran of the Twitter wars, he was only vaguely familiar with the social media troubles of the Reimer family — but argued his team’s strong play in recent weeks isn’t the same kind of meaningless blip that the Leafs delivered at the end of his first season.

“We’ve been doing it for two months,” he said. “It’s not a new phenomenon.”

Burke is bullish on the future in Calgary, and heaps praise on former Calgary GM Jay Feaster for moving some of the ugly contracts and giving the club new flexibility moving forward, particularly on the salary cap front.

Rookie centre Sean Monahan scored his 20th goal of the season on Sunday in a 6-3 loss at Ottawa, the first Calgary rookie since Phaneuf to hit that plateau, and the projections that he could develop into a Ron Francis-type player are turning to be deadly accurate.

Monahan was one of three first-rounders the Flames had in the opening 28 picks last June before Burke was hired to join the Calgary front office, with the others being Gatineau winger Emile Poirier and Regina Pats forward Morgan Klimchuk.

Little Johnny Gaudreau is lighting it up for Boston College in NCAA tournament play, while 2012 first-rounder Mark Jankowski is playing at Providence College. U.S. defence product Patrick Sieloff has a bright future and forward Max Reinhart is putting up points in Abbotsford. Depending on how this June’s draft goes, of course, the Flames might even end up with another Reinhart, Max’s brother Sam.

Burke says it’s “100 per cent” that he won’t be GM next season in Calgary and will return to his role as president of hockey operations, although he seemed so relaxed in a phone interview — in contrast to his final weeks in Toronto, when he was under attack from so many corners — that running the Flames sure seems a comfortable fit.

“I’m really happy here,” he said. “The silver lining to getting fired in Toronto was that I got this job.”

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